2016 national budget: “Green” evacuation centers up next year

CEBU, Philippines - Permanent evacuation centers with a green design will be constructed in every region starting next year.

This was disclosed by Senator Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, who said that she introduced a provision in the proposed 2016 national budget to fund four permanent evacuation centers or buildings in every region in the country.

Legarda, in a statement, explained that the country has been using schools as evacuation centers in times of disasters, which is not healthy because there are instances when it takes weeks or months before calamity victims are able to go back to their homes or provided with new shelters.

In these instances, she said, the children’s educational development suffers because of the delayed resumption of classes.

 “This is why we see the need to build or designate permanent evacuation centers so that we limit the use of classrooms as such. But, of course, our end goal is still to limit the need to evacuate people by ensuring that human settlements are located in safe and disaster-resilient areas,” she added.

The senator said that the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Public Works and Highways are tasked to build these evacuation centers following strict building codes and a green design.

Legarda said that following the experience with Typhoon Yolanda and the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Bohol in 2013, she crafted a provision under the proposed 2016 General Appropriations Act to ensure that permanent evacuation centers and other new buildings and infrastructure that will be constructed and designed must be resilient to earthquakes, typhoons, floods and other extreme weather events.

Special provisions in the GAA, under the budget of DPWH and DILG, state that the two agencies are responsible in ensuring that the evacuation centers are built on safe sites and designed to withstand wind speed of 300 kph and moderate seismic activity of at least 8.0 magnitude on the Richter scale.

The evacuation centers shall be turned over to the local government unit concerned, which shall be responsible for the maintenance and operation of the center.  (FREEMAN)